The Manchurian Candidate

Did any of you see the old film (1962) on PBS the other night.. I remember seeing it when I was 42 tears younger and found it scary and just getting what the surface was about.

After the re-run the other night, it's still scary but I understood it more. It was an incredibly good story and not just a yarn. Sinatra was excellent but then so was the whole cast. The senators, the asian intereregator, the soviets were absolutely real for me. You can't believe how Jessica Fletcher could be so evil and good at it.

It's another taking a good story and redoing it. If the reviews are good I'lll see the new one but the old one is really special. Get the video.

I've had the video for sometime now and watch it at least twice a year. This film is one of my favorites as well as the book from which it is based.

Joe you are absolutely correct, this film is scary on several levels. I don't normally care for black and white films after the 50's but I can't image this film any other way. The cast is superb but I've heard the casting for the new version and that too, has a dream cast.

LAD. I agree that this could be better than the remake. I think great older black and white movies have a certain museum quality.

BronzeG - I'm sure Meryl Streep will do a good job in the film. However, I suspect the role has been rewritten. since there is no longer a communist threat. BTW, she plays the senator! as well as the mother.
Is it better than Angela's? It will be apples and oranges with the new script.

4Dog - That link was fascinating about the background of the movie. I was wondering why it disappeared for so long and why it was never included in the best films of any year. In all those years that it was pulled, the subject always came up when friends were speaking about great films.

I think part of its unpopularity at the time were the Doris Day coy love stories which the public loved at the time. This new version will be competitng with the likes of Spiderman and any other masked hero defending the everyday citizens who are threatened from unknown evils :D

The story is serious as well as scary. The black and white film serves this genre. I hope the remake with all its color doesn't get to glitzy. Didn't the Director of the remake also remade the old Psycho but in color?

I hate remakes but I am actually anxious to see this new game of solitaire

I watched it, too as did hubby. I still get chills remembering the dream sequences suffered by Sinatra and the African American soldier. The seamless shifts from the "garden club" to the REAL people they were with. It was done so well, even to the point of the black soldier's garden club ladies being black women while the one's in Sinatra's nightmare were white.

The movie just leaves you with chills. And it still holds up today, in the respect of anyone who didn't agree with the "Administration" (of Senator Johnny Iselin) was immediately dismissed as unpatriotic and a communist. Interesting parallels to today's politics, but I won't go there! Angela Lansbury was appallingly wonderful. I swear, she has "mothers from hell" in her blood. Her ditzy southern bell Mama ("give your Mama some SUGAHHH, honey") was the only thing that made Elvis' "Blue Hawaii" bearable aside from the scenery.

Laurence Harvey is one of my all time favorite actors, and his portrayal of Sergeant Shaw is just searing.

I wanted to provide a link for you guys. It is for a movie review website that is so great. It features tons of well-known, big name critics and a ton of others you've never heard of. I often look at this before I go to see anything and it usually is a great indicator. "The Manchurian Candidate" was getting some very favorable reviews the last time I checked it.

Now that it's about to open, there is more talk on the differences between the two. The old one is based directly on the book and is about McCarthyism and the Communist Threat; the new one which is loosely based on the original movie but moreso on a new script has to do with the military industrial complex, i.e., the companies who make money when there is a war. Is it pushing Michael Moore's views? No matter, it will be a suspenseful film.

The review below in usatoday. In defense of the film I'd like to point out that it has become a tradition of today’s critics to prove how cleaver they are by criticizing every nuance, real or perceived, of the film, book, play, etc., and using words of three-four-and five syllables to do so.

Perhaps it was ill advised to make this film at this time and as much I as I like the original and consider it a classic, I'll wait to see the film and make the judgment myself.

Just looked at the network guide for this evening and found "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962 version) is being shown on PBS (KERA - North Texas viewing area) tonight at 9:00 p.m.cdt and repeated on August 1st at 1:00 a.m.

Thanks for the USA link. I think the writer of the article was looking more for a duplicate of the original which of course could not take place in Iraq.

I think in real life, but I am not sure, that Denzel has a son in Iraq and doesn't want him killed over non existent WMD and definitely not for Haliburton profits. That was why he accepted this role. Maybe someone can check that out.

In the first film, the mother believed in the Communist way of life I think in the second film, she believes in the importance of profits over life.

I hope to see this on Wednesday and report will hope you will, too, at some point too.